Chapter 20
Flint
We hit the road and ride hard to get to LA.
The journey takes upwards of six hours. Jules is at my back, just where she belongs.
With Mica and Deuce in the lead position, we’re not in visual range of Deuce.
Better for him if he doesn’t see how much his little sister loves being on the back of my bike.
By the time we arrive, Rife and his LA chapter are already on the back of the property line. They’ve been watching all night and into the early afternoon. Eight men in Sons of Rage LA cuts are standing in a loose group behind a row of shipping containers, waiting for us.
Jules jumps off my bike, just like we planned, and gets in the truck with Carnage, who is leaning against the back tailgate.
I get off my bike and follow behind her. Right before she shuts her door, I step close and take her hand in mine. I lean in and brush my lips against hers. She’s pale and trembling a little.
Pulling back, I tell her, “You don’t have to be here, Jules. I can get Carnage to take you somewhere safer.”
She shakes her head, looking embarrassed. “I’m just worried this isn’t him. These people are honest to goodness gangsters, Flint. They could have dropped Mr. Allen’s twin brother in the desert and have some other poor hapless soul locked up in that warehouse.”
I bring her hand to my lips and give it a kiss.
“You’re wrong about that. His family is trying to leverage him into staying with the family instead of seeking out his biological family.
They’re not gonna kill him.” Giving her a lopsided smile, I add, “You have to give the stubborn bastard credit for holding out all these weeks.”
“If he’s anything like his brother, he’s a good man who wouldn’t want to be in a mobbed up family.”
I flash her a quick smile, even as I hear my club brothers calling my name. “We’ll have to ask him when we see him. I will send word for you to come as soon as it’s safe.”
Carnage climbs into the truck and shuts the door as I step back.
I turn and head to the back door of the warehouse, coming up between Jasper and Rife, the SORLA prez.
“We need to move,” Jasper says, gazing at his watch.
Rife responds, “Anthony and his two boys came in twenty minutes ago in a black town car. The car’s parked at the front office. Anthony walked in alone. The boys are in the lot.”
“Daniel’s in there. I just know it,” I mutter. What I don’t say is so is the asshole who sent men after Jules, who tried to implicate her in a fuckin’ bank robbery. I’ll rescue Mr. Allen’s brother because it means so much to Jules. But the mobsters are the ones I’m after.
We press forward and begin quietly climbing the fence. We come down on the other side, and I pull my pistol from my back holster as we make our way past a stack of pallets and around a huge pile of dirt.
Rife and Jasper come up on either side of the back door, and I’m given the fuckin’ pleasure of kicking the door down and going in first. I run through the door and dive to the side looking for something to use as cover, so I can get my bearings.
There’s nothing, so I back myself into the corner and look around.
My club brothers come pouring in from every door and we converge in the main storage room.
It’s vast, with rows and rows of empty metal industrial shelves.
We start looking for the men who are supposed to be inside.
I kick in the door to an office, and there are three men standing over Daniel Terrance. We wrestle them to the ground and disarm them inside of ten minutes. Most of that ten minutes is taken up with relieving them of the absurd number of weapons hidden on their bodies. Fuckin’ mobsters.
The minute I cut away the ropes tying Daniel to the chair, he’s on his feet.
“What’s this about? My family doesn’t have any problems with the Sons of Rage MC.”
“You mean you didn’t, until those men abducted you that night on the beltline.”
Daniel’s mouth falls open. “How did you know about that?”
“I told them,” Jules’s voice rings out. “You reached out to me for help, and I brought it.”
Deuce is standing there with one arm held out in front of Jules. His face is bruised, his lip is split, and his eye is half-shut.
Daniel staggers over to her, looking over her property cut. “Who are you? I mean, I recognize you from the beltline, but who are you really?”
“I’m friends with your twin brother’s daughter. Her name is Lauren.”
“I have a niece?”
“Yeah, but it’s a long story. We probably need to sit down and hash it all out.”
Jasper yanks Anthony up and slams him down into the chair they had Daniel tied to. The old man speaks up. “I already told you, Daniel. The Allens didn’t want you. They didn’t want you when you were born, and they don’t want you now. Why won’t you believe me?”
Before anyone can say anything, Jules turns on the older man. “Probably because you’re lying. Mr. Allen is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I can’t believe his parents would have given away a child.”
“What do you know about it, bitch?” he spits out.
I take two steps closer to Anthony Terrance and backhand him across the face. “Don’t let your mouth and ego write checks your broken down body can’t cash.”
“Do you know who you’re messing with? You just signed your own death warrant.”
My head swivels around to look at Daniel. “Is he always so dramatic?”
“Most of the time. I’d appreciate it if you stopped hitting him.”
“I’d appreciate it if he stopped insulting my old lady, but we don’t always get what we want.”
Jasper clears his throat. “That’s enough smacking the hostage around. We need to save the beating for when it counts.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” the older man asks.
I bend down so I can look him in the eye. “It means that we have questions, and you’re gonna answer them. Based on your answers, we’re either gonna call a truce or give you a dirt nap.”
“Who made you judge, jury, and executioner?”
Drawing my thumb to point back at Anthony Terrance, I ask Daniel, “Is your old man for real?”
“Look, I think there has been a big misunderstanding,” Daniel replies.
Jules speaks up. “No. There’s no misunderstanding.
I saw you beaten and bloody on the beltline.
These men stuffed you in their trunk and tried to run me off the road because I saw it.
Then they sent men to look for me and Flint.
Then they put money in my account from a bank robbery trying to frame me.
Exactly how is any of that a misunderstanding? ”
“It’s not,” Anthony spits out. “You were interfering with my family, so I did what I had to in order to make you stop.”
I put one finger on Anthony’s forehead and push his head back. Staring down at him, I tell him, “I’m not gonna let any of that go. You know that, right?”
“Yes, you will. I apparently have information that you want to know. Release me, and I will tell you what you want.”
All I want in the whole world is to punch this arrogant prick right in the face, but I don’t because I still have a bit of self-control.
Jasper reaches down with both hands and pulls the older man up by his suit jacket.
When he lets him go, he smooths his jacket back out with one hand.
“Look, old man. I’m pretty fuckin’ sick of dealing with you, and we just got here.
We’re gonna ask questions, and you’re gonna answer them.
If you don’t talk then you ain’t walking out of here today.
So, it’s either tell the truth or die. You got it? ”
“I’ve got it, but here’s what you need to understand. Threatening me is a no-win situation. You’re already a dead man walking for that alone.”
Jasper frowns at him. “Look, I’ve got an old man who likes to say crazy shit like that too.
But this isn’t the time or place. I know you mobsters like to think you’re badasses, but I can raise a thousand men with real-life fighting experience.
Ones that don’t wear fuckin’ suits and like to fight dirty.
If you want to keep it up, we can go there. ”
When the old man opens his mouth, Daniel interjects, “Just answer their questions.”
Before the old man can object, Slate asks, “Start with the birth. How do identical twins end up with two different sets of names on their birth certificates?”
“My wife was pregnant in 1968. We had three sons by that time. Her dream was always to have four.”
“Get to the point,” Slate says.
“Well, she had lost two babies in a row, they were stillborn. She had all her hopes pinned on this one last try. We went to the hospital as scheduled on her due date. This was a live birth. Unfortunately, our son didn’t survive the night.”
The room goes completely silent. Jules stammers, “I’m really sorry. That must have been devastating.”
“Yes. It was. She kept asking to see the baby, and I didn’t know how to break it to her.
A nurse caught me in the hallway. She told me there was a young woman down the corridor who had just delivered twins.
The family was poor and hadn’t been expecting two.
She had a cesarean and wasn’t even aware that there were two.
The father was in despair about how he could support two babies when they were barely surviving as it was.
The nurse said she could arrange a transfer. I told her yes.”
“What! The nurse just gave you a baby?” Jules interrupts.
Daniel takes one step towards his father. “It’s true then, they didn’t want me.”
“What difference does it make? I wanted you. And your mother was beside herself with joy. You had a good life growing up. Everything a little boy could want.”
“And Mom was agreeable to this half-cocked plan?”
The old man shakes his head. “She never knew. The records were fixed so the young family got the one baby they could afford, your mother got that last son she wanted. The nurse got a handsome payment for her efforts. Everybody walked away with what they wanted.”
“You bought me,” Daniel gasps. “I can’t believe that money changed hands and I was separated from my twin brother, just like that.”
“I gave you a good life, filled with loving parents, wonderful brothers. You never went without, not once.”
“You lied to me for fifty-eight years.”
“We loved you for fifty-eight years.”
Daniel turns his back on him.
Jasper takes one step closer to Anthony.
“And what about the incident on the beltline?”
“What about it?”
“You abducted him on the beltline, you beat him, stuffed him in the trunk of your car, and have kept him tied up in this warehouse for the past three months. How does that square with loving your son?”
“I tried to talk to him first. I explained how much his casting our family aside would hurt his mother, but Daniel was so stubborn. Once he found out about having a brother, finding him was all he wanted.”
“You put him in a trunk and held him hostage. Do you have any concept of how wrong that shit is?”
“I did what a father does when a son is hurting his mother.”
“Get a hold of Morgan. Tell him we caught the man responsible for the abduction on the LA beltline six weeks ago. Tell him we got a confession recorded with multiple eyewitnesses. Tell him to bring a federal friend.”
Striker’s voice in my ear is dry. “I captured the entire conversation on audio. It’s time-stamped and backed up.”
Anthony Terrance closes his eyes and begins muttering under his breath because he knows it’s over.
Jules follows Daniel out of the building. I follow, watching from a distance as they begin talking. Deuce is at my side in an instant, still bruised and battered. “What the hell happened to you?”
“The dude at the gate was a fuckin’ tank. It took me a minute to deal with him. Then I went to get Jules, like I promised.”
We stand there for a minute, watching Jules and Daniel chatting. Jules is using her hands to describe something, and Daniel is all smiles. I can tell he’s just really excited to see his biological family.
Finally, Deuce tells me, “You were right to let her come here. She needed this.”
I turn my head to look at him. “Brother.”
“Yeah,” he replies without taking his eyes off his sister.
“Are we good?”
He turns his head to look at me. “Yeah, bro. We’re good.”